Expansible containers



Oct 1959 s. HARRINGTON EXPANSIBLE CONTAINERS Filed July 1, 1957 INVENTOR. SUSIE HARRINGTON BY PARKER 8-CARTER flTTORA/EYS United States Patent EXPANSIBLE CONTAINERS Susie Harrington, Milwaukee, Wis.

Application July 1, 1957, Serial No. 668,966

2 Claims. (Cl. 2208) My invention relates to expansible containers, especially adapted for use as an auxiliary liner for cabinet or desk drawers.

It is manifest to anyone familiar with the art that it is often desirable, or even imperative, that the contents of a desk drawer, or the like, should be protected against dirt, moisture, heat, or the like. The principal object of the present invention is to provide an auxiliary container which may be adjusted to fit snugly in a drawer so as to be supported by the bottom and side walls of the drawer.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a container of the character above mentioned, which may also be equipped with a cover, hinged or otherwise, which may be similarly adjusted longitudinally and laterally to correspond with the size of the container.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a device of the character described which may be equipped with expandable, movable partitions, for the separation of the contents of the enclosure.

Other and further objects of my invention will become more apparent as the description proceeds when taken in conjunction with the drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary view, in perspective, of a container made in accordance with my invention, and showing it inserted in a cabinet drawer, the fragmentary portion of the cabinet being shown in phantom;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the assembled device removed from a drawer;

Figure 3 is a top plan view showing the four corner sections constituting the principal parts of the device and illustrating their telescopic relation with each other;

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the component parts of the container in partially assembled relation, but with the cover omitted; and

Figure 5 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the manner of mounting a removable, expandable partition on channels which clamp the edges of the telescopic corner sections together.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views, and referring now to the same, the character represents a dresser drawer, or the like, slidably mounted in a cabinet shown in phantom at 11.

The device has as its principal parts four telescopically engaging corner sections, indicated as 12, 12 12 and 12 in Figure 3. Each corner section consists of a bottom plate 14 and vertically extending wall sections 15 and 15 disposed at right angles to each other.

The corner sections are assembled by arranging the bottom plates 14 in lapping telescopic relation with each other, and with adjacent side walls 15 and 15 of said sections in lapping telescopic relation, as seen in Figure 3.

Channels 16 and 16 which may be of any length, are employed to slidably retain the adjacent upper lapping edges 15 and 15 of telescopic sections 12, 12 12 and 12, together as shown in Figure 2, so as to permit longi- Ice to fit the inside of a drawer 10.

I, Some of the channels lfi may be provided with an inwardly and upwardly disposed ledge 17, shown in Figures 2 and 5, so as to support the hooked ends of a cross partition 18. Each such partition consists of two telescopic parts 18 and 18 held in position by channels 16, shown in Figure 2. In this manner, the width of the entire container unit may be adjusted laterally and the partitions 18 may be adjusted to fit any width of the unit.

The container may be provided with a hinged cover, consisting of flat pieces 19, 19 19 and 19, which are disposed in lapping telescopic relation with each other and retained along adjacent edges by channels 16 as shown in Figure 2. Said cover may also be hinged to the vertical walls of two of the adjacent corner sections, as shown in Figure 4.

It will be noted that the hinges 20 are disposed near the outer corners of the container, so as to permit considerable latitude in mutual telescopic adjustment of the cover 19 and the container 12.

It will be further understood that the cover sections 19, 19 19 and 19 could be provided with downwardly extending walls (not shown) similar to the side walls of the sure which may be readily adjusted to fit the inside of a drawer 10, and prevent the access of moisture, mice, or the like to the contents of the drawer. The partitions 18 may also be employed as desired to separate the contents of the unit.

Although I have shown and described certain embodiments of my invention, it will be understood that I do not wish to be limited to the exact construction shown and described but that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An adjustable auxiliary container assembly for drawers, consisting of four corner sections each having a flat bottom plate and upstanding side walls at right angles to each other, and channels adapted for slidable, clamp ing engagement over the side walls of adjacent corner sections to hold the flat bottom plates and side walls of said corner sections in interfitting, telescopic adjustment relative to each other so as to permit lateral and longitudinal variation in size of the container, the channels at opposite sides of the container assembly having inwardly and upwardly extending flanges, and one or more transverse partitions each consisting of end portions telescopically adjustable relative to each other and having interfitting engagement with the flanges of the channels, so as to elfect endwise adjustment of the partition with the adjustment of the corner section in the same direction.

2. An adjustable auxiliary container assembly for drawers, consisting of four corner sections each having a flat bottom plate and upstanding side walls at right angles to each other, and channels adapted for slidable, clamping engagement over the side walls of adjacent corner sections to hold the fiat bottom plates and side walls of said corner sections in interfitting, telescopic adjustment relative to each other, so as to permit lateral and longitudinal variation in size of the container, a cover con sisting of a plurality of rectangular cover sections, channels adapted for slidable, clamping engagement of the adjacent outer edges of the cover sections, and hinge means mounted on the upper edges of adjacent upper edges of the corner sections, said hinge: means having pivotal connection with cooperating hinge means on the side edges of adjacent cover sections so as to permit simul- 3 1 4 'taneous lateral adjustment of the hinge means on both 1,746,720 Sullivan et a1 Feb. 11, 1930 thecontainer and its cover. 7 1,995,335 Wilke Mar. 26, 1935 1 2,223,074 Martin Nov. 26, 1940 References Cited in the file of this patent 2,732,091 Kass Jan. 24, 1956 UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 FOREIGN PATENTS v 560,893 Conant May 26, 1896 145,911 Great Britain July 8, 1920 1,695,222 Arnold et a1 Dec. 11, 1928 890,033 Germany Sept. 17, 1953 WW-F a w 

